


Remnants

by rataplani



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: One-Shot, Other, Post-Canon, Testing Euphoria, Whole Game Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-18
Updated: 2012-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-31 09:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/342322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rataplani/pseuds/rataplani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a session of mental house-cleaning, GLaDOS stumbles upon some unwelcome memory files.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remnants

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [31 Days](http://31-days.livejournal.com/) challenge on livejournal (the prompt in question is "June 7, 2011 - I would not touch a thing he touched".

The battle was over, the intruder had been evicted, and now GLaDOS was on house-cleaning duty.  
Not only of the facility itself, but also of the many files now scattered throughout her chassis' mainframe.  
It probably couldn't have been in worse disarray if that moron had _deliberately_ set out to make as much of a mess as possible in the short time he was in charge.

A large part of her felt disgusted by the task, but she pushed her reservations aside irritably. _Yes_ , she could do this later, but she wanted her home back to normal as soon as possible.

With this in mind, she accessed the list of files, selecting one at random and opening it.

- _everything burning falling to pieces cores screaming nonsense in my head liar not my fault just die die DIE CHELL_ -

Overcome by the sudden overwhelming noise, GLaDOS leapt from the file to another in the list.

- _c'mon solve the test, I know you can. I need you to solve it come on come on oh-ho **yes-**_

GLaDOS back-pedaled rapidly, pulling out of the file and back into the relative quiet of her normal system.  
Shuddering, she collected her thoughts.  
For the brief moment that the file had been open, her mind had been assaulted by images, thoughts and sensations from when the moron was in control of her system. For a second, she had been inside his mind, or at least a copy of it. 

She knew why, of course, though she hadn't expected it.  
Her chassis was equipped with something akin to the screen capture on lesser computers. It was a useful way to preserve her notes on a subject when in a hurry, and then return later to browse with the recorded thoughts of her past self echoing in her mind and reminding her of whatever she had been doing.  
The recordings themselves were impossible to skip or remove until viewed, a factor that had been slightly inconvenient in the past, but now threatened to make her furious. 

GLaDOS wasn't sure how many of the files in the list had the moron's imprint on them, but she knew that there was no way to find out without diving in again. Annoyed, she braced herself and accessed the earliest file in the list. 

- _look down on me now? I'm huge! I can do anything, no, everything! … Wonder what'll happen if I open_ \- 

GLaDOS exited the file, beyond being appalled at the mental imprints of imbecility.  
It appeared that in his first moments of stolen control, this had been one of the programs that the moron had carelessly played around with.  
If she was interpreting the recording correctly, he had activated the program without thinking – not that he could really lay a claim to thinking anyway – and never switched it off. Not being experienced with the mainframe, and with the testing protocols occupying his mind, he wouldn't have even noticed that it was running. 

… And now she had her answer.  
 _Every_ file that the Intelligence Dampening Sphere had touched had become an exact copy of his mind at that moment.  
GLaDOS paused, considering what to do next.  
Like she had done so recently with her largest problem, she decided on the easy option: ignore the issue.  
She had others things that she could do – the Co-operative Testing Initiative for one – and she had already known that this wasn't exactly the most urgent of tasks. More importantly, she couldn't bring herself to enter that moron's mind again. Doing that just felt utterly disgusting to her for some indefinable and slightly uncomfortable reason. 

Decision made, GLaDOS bundled up all the files and shoved them in an outlying, password protected folder.  
Nothing wrong with being careful after all, as she didn't know what those imprints would affect if they leaked into the mainframe.  
In the worst case, they might even lead to a complete copy of the moron during his reign over Aperture. In the best case, they would only make a _few_ experiments fail. 

With a final exasperated huff, GLaDOS departed that section of the mainframe, leaving the files to rot until she could stomach the task of accessing them.  
She had work to do. 


End file.
